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Ventura County Behavioral Health Updates During the Coronavirus Outbreak

The Ventura County Behavioral Health Department supports the well-being of our County family, friends and colleagues. During an infectious disease outbreak, take care for your own physical and mental health and reach out in kindness to those affected by the situation.

Our Behavioral Health and Substance Use Services Clinics are open. There are staff on site and working remotely that are actively reaching out to all enrolled clients to assess their needs, link them to appropriate resources and ensure they have medication support as needed from our trusted and committed multidisciplinary clinical teams. As always, we have staff and provide services in both English and Spanish to meet client needs. To assist in flattening the curve and stopping the spread of COVID-19, many services are being offered by phone or through telehealth unless a face-to-face service is needed.

The Crisis Team continues to respond to calls from the field, prioritizing these calls in order to respond by providing crisis interventions and crisis management. The Crisis Team is also supporting local Emergency Departments by offering consultations to ER staff, crisis assessments of patients and decisions about the need for involuntary services via Zoom.

Our Older Adults Program continues to serve our enrolled older adults during this time while many are confined to their homes. These services are vital and will be continued to support their mental and emotional well-being and in an effort to ensure they have what they need to stay safe at home.

Our Logrando Bienestar Outreach Program which directly provides services to our Latino community is actively partnering with school districts in order to leverage technology to offer workshops, consultation, and education regarding COVID-19 to parents and families, while continuing to accept referrals as appropriate from school sites. In addition, they are looking to also use a technology platform to reach out and connect with our farmworker community.

We, like many of you, are very concerned about those that are without shelter in our County. Behavioral Health is working with Whole Person Care and the Backpack Medicine team, which is made up of a group of physicians who check in on the medical needs of homeless people who are being housed in hotels/motels to care for their well-being, and hopefully stop the spread.

These are uncharted waters that we find ourselves in, but we know we have been through and been made stronger by difficult times before. As our CEO, Mike Powers said “The strength and compassion of our community will help us get through this together.”

Take good care and be well.